Family/Spouse: Sarah Stearns. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ralph married Virginia Archer [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Physician

Ralph married Kate Sykes McSween on 16 Apr 1913. Kate was born on 8 Oct 1891 in Timmonsville, SC; died in 1956. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Physician

Attended Medical College of S.C. 1858-1859. His Preceptor was R.E. Wylie.
Joe Foster was a physician in Lancaster County, and served as a Medical
Officer during the Civil War. He rose from Private to Surgeon of
Jenkins' Brigade, and was functioning as Division Surgeon at the
surrender. He was buried as a Brigadier General, but there is no record
of his holding that rank.

Article, Lancaster News (undated clipping):

Dr. J. H. FOSTER

"Between the years 1865-85, one of the best known men in the county
and village of Lancaster was Dr. Joe. An old-time family doctor,
physician, nurse, and friend, he was loved by one and all as he traveled
over the rutted dirt roads in his horse and buggy to the homes of the
sick.
Dr. Joseph Henry Foster was born April 20, 1835 at his father's
plantation home on the Catawba River in the Waxhaws section of Lancaster
County. He was the youngest child of John and Ann Kelsey Cantzon Foster,
and a grandson of Captain John Foster and his wife Ann Dunlop. The Foster
home had been built close to the river, sometime around 1752 when the
family came down from Pennsylvania, on the plantation now belonging to
the children of Anna Foster Moore. But, due to the prevalence of malaria
which had caused the deaths of a number of the older brothers and sisters
of Dr. Joe, a new home had been erected higher up on the old plantation.
This home site is on the Lancaster-Riverside highway where C.C. Hanson
now lives. The house was burned before 1900.
Dr. Joe and his brother, Captain John Cantzon Foster received their
first education in a neighborhood school, then were sent by their father
to Mt Zion Institute in Winnsboro to prepare for entrance into the
University of South Carolina. From the University both were graduated in
1855. Joseph Henry then studied medicine in Charleston and in 1860
finished at the New Orleans School of Medicine.
Early in the spring of 1861, Dr. Foster volunteered with the Lancaster
Greys of the Confederate Army, and was with them on the S.C. coast and
later in Virginia. He was promoted to the full rank of Surgeon by order
of the Secretary of War of the Confederacy in 1862 and served with the
5th S.C. Volunteers, under the command of General Coward, until the end
of the war. An obituary of him at the time of his death says "Dr. Foster
had but few equals in the Confederate service as a successful surgeon and
physician, and it not infrequently happened that he was detailed to do
brigade and division duty."
At the close of the war, Dr. Foster returned to his father's Waxhaw
home, which he inherited upon his father's death in 1867. In 1869, he was
married to Charlotte Brown, daughter of Daniel Washington and Elizabeth
Amanda Barnes Brown. In 1876, the couple moved down to the village of
Lancaster. Their home was on the corner of Dunlap and Catawba Streets,
later sold to Dr. G. F. Poovey, and now belonging to the county, the site
of the Public Welfare Building.
In addition to practicing medecine, Dr. Foster was interested in
agriculture in every form. He planted his farm in the Waxhaws and raised
cattle on land he had bought on Gills Creek, a good part of what is now
North Main. He grew fruit trees and always had a beautiful flower garden."
Dr. and Mrs. Foster had ten children, all but three growing to
adulthood. Three of his sons followed their father's profession, the
fourth was a Lancaster attorney.
Dr. Foster died May 23, 1885. Buried in the same plot of the old
Presbyterian Cemetery with him and his wife are three young children and
a son, Dr. Carl Foster, and the latter's wife. Dr. Carl Foster practiced
medicine many years in Columbia, S.C.. Also buried beside their parents
are two daughters well-remembered by many Lancastrians, Misses Eloise and
Gertrude Foster, who were beloved teachers in the Lancaster Public school
for many years. Two children are still living, Dr. Ralph Kelsey Foster
and Miss Caroline Foster, both of Columbia, S.C."Attended Medical College
of S.C. 1858-1859. His Preceptor was R.E. Wylie.
Joe Foster was a physician in Lancaster County, and served as a Medical
Officer during the Civil War. He rose from Private to Surgeon of
Jenkins' Brigade, and was functioning as Division Surgeon at the
surrender. He was buried as a Brigadier General, but there is no record
of his holding that rank.

Article, Lancaster News (undated clipping):

Joseph married Charlotte Rebecca Brown on 9 Nov 1869 in Lancaster County, South Carolina. Charlotte (daughter of Daniel Washington McDonald Brown and Elizabeth Amanda Barnes) was born on 20 Apr 1849 in Lancaster County, South Carolina; died on 19 Mar 1918 in Lancaster, South Carolina. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Charlotte's obituary in the Lancaster News of 22 March 1918 mentions four
surviving sons; Harry, Cantzon, Carl, and Ralph; four surviving
daughters; Eloise, Gertrude, Katherine, and Josephine; one brother,
George Brown and one sister Liddie Jones.